A place in the I-tunes music store beckons for the University of Chester’s Wayne O’Brien, who has recorded a charity single to coincide with his bike ride of a lifetime this summer. Wayne, a Senior Lecturer in Television Production at the University’s Warrington campus, jets off to America tomorrow (Friday) for the start of what will be an epic 6,000-mile solo bike ride across America, Europe and Great Britain.
To publicise his efforts and raise even more funds for his two charities, Help for Heroes and the Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Foundation for Peace, Wayne joined forces with staff and students from the University’s Commercial Music Production programme to produce a track entitled The Bike Ride Of My Life, which will be available to download from July 6 on I-tunes, Amazon and other music download sites.
Wayne said: “The song was written by one of the lecturers here, Jim Mason, and the whole project was a massive collaborative effort involving many staff and students at the campus.
“It’s a very tongue in cheek look at the adventure that I’m about to embark on, which I hope people will find very funny. All proceeds will go to the two charities, so I’d encourage everyone to download it.”
Wayne embarks on a mammoth solo fund-raiser when he flies to San Francisco tomorrow. The trans-American leg of his journey will take him 3,500 miles from the USA’s west to east coast, before he flies from New York to Gibraltar. From there, he will ride through Spain and France before returning to the UK and eventually finishing at Peninsula Barracks in Warrington on Saturday, August 22.
Wayne, aged 51, added: “Both charities are very worthwhile causes. My son has served in Iraq and is due to go to Afghanistan later this year, so I know all about the work of Help for Heroes, while the Foundation for Peace obviously holds a strong connection for Warrington people.”
Wayne is taking his laptop, camcorder and mobile phone on the trip, and will be providing regular updates via a blog on the website www.thecharityride.com. To accompany the new single, a music video has been uploaded to the site, while a couple of other spoof YouTube videos were produced to publicise the adventure.
Wayne’s supporters include Dawes Cycles, Zyro PLC and the Bike Factory in Chester. To sponsor Wayne, visit www.thecharityride.com.
